“North
Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will
be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been
very threatening … and as I said they will be met with fire, fury
and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen
before.”

Despite
the fact that North Korea has not attacked the United States and has
only threatened to do so as a defensive measure in the face of U.S.
threats to destroy the hermit kingdom, it seems Donald Trump is
considering a preemptive strike against the communist nation.

Despite
Trump’s supposed ‘realist’ foreign policy promises during the
campaign, he has already learned that when a U.S. president bombs a
supposed adversary, presidential standing tends to go up. He learned
this after bombing Syria after an alleged gas attack, which garnered
praise even from some of Trump’s most dogged detractors. As Fareed
Zakaria, for example, said
the day after the Tomahawks flew into Syria, “Donald
Trump became president of the United States last night.”

Assad
wasn’t even threatening the American people in this episode. Can
you imagine the praise Trump would receive from the mainstream press
if he were to actually unleash “fire, fury and frankly power,
the likes of which this world has never seen before” against a
nation that has been locked in a cold war with the U.S. since the
1950s? Do you think any sitting Democrats or Republicans would really
speak up against a president who ‘saved’ the West coast from a
potential North Korean nuclear missile? Do you think the American
people will be outraged at all at the massive death toll or the
geopolitical ramifications of war on the Korean peninsula regarding
China and Russia?

No,
I suspect that though some Americans will be horrified, most will
cheer any such actions by the sitting president. I suspect even those
who are now advocating a policy of mutually assured destruction in
regards to North Korea’s nuclear arsenal would not dare criticize
the president for such ‘decisive’ action.

Remember,
folks, war
is the health of the state. It
is also the health of presidents and their popularity in the present
and future. Remember that war-time presidents are usually ranked as
some of the greatest in American history — Lincoln, FDR, and
Woodrow Wilson come to mind.

I
only hope millions of North Koreans, who are hostages and slaves of
their own government, do not die for over perceived threats to the
American people. And good lord, let us hope millions do not die for
the sake of Trump’s own poll numbers and place in history. It is
terrible even to think of it, but that is the world we have inherited
— one that allows an American president to promise “fire and
fury” as the crowds cheer out of fear or pride, a world that tempts
dictators to think pursuing that same ability to inflict fire and
fury will bring them security.

The
issue of North Korean nukes has long been argued, but there is an
even older argument: Should these weapons have been created in the
first place?